Created by the public interest law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Company Pulls The Plug On Industrial Wind Farm In Critical Indiana Bat Habitat

After years of
controversy, energy company Gamesa has withdrawn its plans to build an
industral wind power facility near Shaffer Mountain, Pennsylvania. The
project would have been placed in an important migratory corridor for Golden
eagles and in the midst of a maternity colony of critically endangered Indiana
bats. This would have been the first time that a wind project – which
according to leading experts would have killed and harmed Indiana bats due to
turbine collisions and a pressurizing condition called barotrauma – would be
sited in such a sensitive location for an endagered species. On behalf of
several conservation organizations and community members, we submitted multiple
notice letters and comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers detailing various violations of the Endangered Species
Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, which inevitably
influenced the company’s decision to withdraw from this project in lieu of more
sustainable project locations elsewhere that will better allow for clean,
renewable energy without sacrificing our nation’s important natural
resources.